CUC PHUONG NATIONAL PARK- NINH BINH

Today we meandered south 3 hrs to a national park just west of the old capital Ninh Binh where we trekked 6km in the jungle to hang out with the 1000 yr old trees. Then we visited the endangered primate rescue centre, an independently funded organization who is working to preserve and rescue 15 species of monkey in Vietnam- various Languans, the grey feet, red feet and white bum, plus the Cat Ba Languan which only exists on the island we visited yesterday. They also had a few species of Gibsons- who mate for life, not unlike humans ( are supposed too). All of these monkeys are endangered and being protected from hunters who sell them to china and VIP vietnamese as delicacies- monkey meat, monkey brains and also apparently they use powdered monkey bones as a black market remedy for treating cancer- vitamin C is SO much cheaper and effective but hey!!
Its no surprise that the Vietnam government in no way supports, financially or otherwise, this organization- I mentioned to Hung that this may be because the high end government officials are some of the people eating these monkeys- he tended to agree.
They are doing their best to keep hunters out of national parks all over the country, rescuing primate pairs and rebuilding species populations whilst creating a safe protected jungle area for them to be released too as the numbers are re established. A worthy cause we felt.